Dr. Lewis Lummer, senior lecturer of deaf education and
American Sign Language in Robbins College of Health
and Human Sciences, is acutely aware of the challenges deaf
students face on a daily basis. Having overcome educational
barriers due to being deaf himself, his desire to help others
do the same has led to a unique opportunity for deaf students
in Waco.

In August 2017 Lummer launched Christian Academy for
the Deaf; Texas’ first fully functioning, tuition-free Christian
school for deaf students.

The Christian Academy for the Deaf seeks to honor God
and serve the community by creating a unique learning
environment to serve students who are deaf and hard of
hearing. Providing a safe and nurturing environment, students
grow in the knowledge and love of God and neighbor and
become equipped to lead and serve throughout their lives.
The Academy’s curricula are designed specifically to meet the
communicational, emotional and social needs of deaf and hardof-
hearing students through classroom instruction in American
Sign Language and research-based best practices for dual
literacy in English.

Born to deaf parents, Lummer’s native language is American
Sign Language. But that didn’t stop him from accomplishing
his educational goals. He earned an associate degree in civil
engineering, a bachelor’s degree in international studies,
a master’s degree in deaf education and a doctorate in
education. He taught elementary and high school before
joining Baylor’s Department of Communication Sciences and
Disorders in 2010.

Some of Lummer’s earliest memories sparked his interest
in starting a Christian school for the deaf. As a child, he
remembers feeling frustrated about barriers to education. He
also remembers going to church with his family and being
unable to fully follow along or understand. It wasn’t until he
met a deaf pastor as an 18-year-old that his faith came alive.

Today, Lummer says, less than one percent of deaf students
have the opportunity to receive a rigorous, faith-based
education. His dream of a school like Christian Academy for
the Deaf has motivated him for more than a decade, and it has
finally come to pass.

“Many parents don’t have an opportunity to send their
children to a school such as this,” Lummer said. “Other
options hearing people have are homeschooling, etcetera, but
here, deaf children can come, and we can provide equal access
to everything right here — possibly to someone from Dallas,
Austin, Houston. This could be a central area and kind of a
hub for deaf education.”